Inside Rem Koolhaas’s Bizarre 13th-Century Venetian Department Store
Rem Koolhaas has a genius for deftly reviving historic buildings—see the architect’s work with the Prada Foundation in Milan, or the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. But when Koolhaas and his firm OMA was asked by the Hong Kong-based DFS to transform the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, a landmark originally constructed in 1228 (it has been a fish market and Mussolini-era post office in the past), into a modern department store, they went for bold contrast rather than subtle assimilation. Amongst the newly installed escalators and expansive wooden terraces, you’ll find swaths of gold and metallic, mirrored surfaces, as well as shocks of red that accent the facelift like a bold slash of lipstick. Just the right side of garish, it’s like no shopping mall you’ve been to. Take a look inside the new space, here.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
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Inside the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Photo by Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti, courtesy of OMA.
